Swiftech has taken a new generation of their MCR radiators and paired it with the tried and tested Apogee XL waterblock in their new AIO watercooler, the H220-X. At ~$170 it is more expensive than many competitors solutions and so will need to perform at higher levels in order to get a recommendation from [H]ard|OCP. The cooler does offer some extras which the competition does not which helps justify the pricing, you can power up to eight fans with the included adapter which makes sense as the modular design of the H220-X allows you to add to the cooling loop if you so desire. The performance was quite good especially when you consider how quiet the cooler operates at full load but as [H] mentions in their conclusion, the price is quite high and they saw the MSRP at a much lower $130.

"Swiftech is a standard name in the computer hardware enthusiast arena. Today we review its answer to an enthusiast All-In-One CPU cooler. As you might guess it is strong on hardware, design, and purpose. The H220-X CPU Liquid Cooling Kit focuses on little to no noise while providing excellent cooling."

Phanteks has introduced a computer enclosure with a new form-factor they are calling “super micro ATX”, a large alternative to standard mATX designs that has the advantage of supporting two complete systems within a single case.

The second motherboard is supported via their ITX upgrade kit, and as the name indicates the second system must be built on the mini-ITX platform. While this might appeal to a very small market there is a need for running discrete systems for some users, and this design is certainly an interesting alternative to running two boxes. How it handles heat dissipation is a good question, but considering the “extreme cooling” capacity of the case - with up to 14x 120mm or 8x 140mm fan mounts - there would be plenty of room for a pair of AIO solutions to keep the CPU heat outside of the enclosure.

The mini-ITX board is installed at the top (Image credit: cowcotland.com)

Deepcool has announced a couple of new mini-ITX enclosures, and they are anything but average.

The Deepcool Tristellar (Credit: Legit Reviews)

First we have one of the wildest looking enclosures at I’ve ever seen (other than the In Win D-Frame mini), and it looks very much like an Imperial shuttle (ROTJ, anyone?). With three sections connected to a central hub, the Tristellar has the look of some sort of spacecraft, and would appear at first glance to be rather complicated to build in (though I'd love to find out first-hand).

Exploded view of the Tristellar (Credit: Legit Reviews)

The enclosure was featured as the basis of an upcoming gaming system from CyberPower, and it would indeed house a capable gaming machine with support for mini-ITX motherboards, full-size graphics cards, and standard ATX power supplies.

The second case is a little more conventional on the surface, but again we have a design that is quite a departure.

The Pentower enclosure (Credit: Legit Reviews)

The upright Pentower enclosure seems to borrow from the design of the latest-gen Mac Pro (albeit in a less cylindrical fashion), but is not built upon the Mac’s cooling design (in which the CPU and GPU are directly connected to the large central heatsink). Such a design seems ideal for this enclosure shape, but Deepcool has implemented their own air cooling system here.

The Mac Pro’s thermal design (Credit: Apple, Inc)

With the Pentower standard components can be used and installation should be relatively easy since “after the shell is removed, all of the panels and trestles are exposed (and) users can install units directly without uninstall(ing) any other part of the case“, according to the press release.

There is no listing for the Tristellar or Pentower cases on the Deepcool website as of today, and naturally pricing and availability have not been announced.

[H]ard|OCP has not been impressed with EVGA's PSUs; they are not bad but do not tend to match the quality and pricing of the competition. The new EVGA Supernova 1300 G2 is available for $180 and could buck this trend, it has a 10 year warranty, an 80 Plus Gold efficiency rating and it looks good on paper. With the ability to provide a hair over 108 amps to its 12V line, eight 6 pin PCIe power connectors of which two can have the extra pair of plugs for 8 pin and solid performance it seems that EVGA has indeed produced a great power supply. [H]ard|OCP does not often award the Gold to PSUs but in this case thanks to the excellent build and power quality along with a very competitive price EVGA has produced a very good product for those who need serious power for their PC.

"EVGA has a bit of a rocky road with HardOCP when it comes to PSU reviews. Today we give EVGA the opportunity to redeem itself with its 1300 watt powerhouse touting "exceptional efficiency" and a fully modular design that is "silent and optimized for the enthusiast." All this with a 10 year warranty? It must be a badass."

During CES we saw a demonstration of a new genre of processor cooling that truly wowed me. That is tough to do - heatsinks and even self-contained water blocks appear to be a dime a dozen these days. Cooler Master has partnered with CoolChip technologies, a start up that promises to make processor cooling more efficient, 2x smaller and quieter too. The secret is kinetic cooling.

Kinetic cooling works by removing the typical fan in a heatsink design and replacing it with a piece of rotating metal. This top metal has fins that resemble that of traditional fans that move air UP and away from the heatsink assembly. These fins are mated with a cooling plate, a base piece of metal that comes in contact with the processor and transfers the heat away.

The key is the connection between the top and bottom metal: using a very thin layer of air that resides between a set of interlocking grooves, the small motor in the center of the cooler spins the groves inside each other without touching, drawing heat from the stationary portion to the rotating one.

This is a prototype of a hybrid cooler combining heatpipes and CoolChip

The result is a cooler that is just as efficient as today's but can be small and generate less noise. Because the top half of the heatsink is actually rotating to provide air movement, you no longer need a fan, lowering z-height. And because you are halving the number of places air is making contact (just fan blades versus fan blades and heatsink fins), sound levels are significantly lower for similar TDPs.

Oh and they look damn cool too. CoolChip says that pricing and build cost will be in line with current heatsinks, alleviating worries of high prices.

be Quiet announced they will be revealing two new low profile coolers at CES 2015, the larger Dark Rock Topflow and the miniaturized Shadow Rock LP.

The Dark Rock pictured above will be good for smaller builds which require a powerful processor as opposed to a BayTrail system and has enough clearance for sockets which are tight up against your RAM slots. If you sacrifice the benefit of the second fan located on the bottom of the heatsink you should be able to fit RAM with larger sized heat spreaders.

For systems squeezed into a tiny case the Shadow Rock LP is a great choice, 4.3" of height with the fan attached will allow you to add third party cooling to tiny systems (yes, the picture has them reversed). You will have to go with low profile or horizontally mounted RAM as the clearance is very tight but this design makes more sense than to reduce the size of the heatsink below 120mm.

Corsair has announced their newest Hydro Series all-in-one (AIO) liquid CPU cooler, the H110i GT. This new model has a 140x322 mm radiator and dual 140mm SP140L fans.

Corsair points out the "striking new look with logo inserts on the block and radiator" which add style, but more importantly part of the design changes with the H110i include a new cooling block to make potential performance gains over existing designs an interesting possibility. Certainly the larger radiator surface area and 140mm fans suggest lower noise.

Corsair Link support is also provided to allow "monitoring and customization of built-in logo lighting, fan speed, pump speed".

Specifications:

140mm x 322mm x 27mm aluminum radiator

Two SP140L 140mm high static pressure fans

Corsair Link support for customization and monitoring

Sleeved wide diameter, low evaporation rubber tubing

Support for Intel LGA 115x, 1366, 2011 and AMD AM2, AM3, FM1, FM2

5-year limited warranty

MSRP: $129.99

The H100i GT Liquid CPU Cooler will carry a $129.99 MSRP and availablity is set for a February release.

Corsair has announced a new liquid cooling bracket for graphics cards, the Hydro Series HG10 N780 Edition.

The bracket allows a Corsair Hydro Series liquid CPU cooler (not included, of course) to be attached to select NVIDIA GeForce cards. What cards are compatible? Reference design NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770, GTX 780, GTX 780 Ti, Titan and Titan Black. (Reference design refers to the board itself, and you will often find aftermarket cooling on reference-based cards in the retail channel. As always, it's best to research your card beforehand!)

The HG10 N780 requires just eight screws to install, and Corsair states that the bracket "when combined with a Corsair Hydro Series CPU liquid cooler" of course, "can reduce the GPU’s temperature by up to 45° C, and works with the GPU’s automatic temperature control (to) lower the speed of its onboard fan for quieter operation".

VRAM and VRMs are also cooled with the bracket, "helping extend the life of the GPU and providing more overclocking headroom".

Specifications:

Allows any Corsair Hydro Series CPU cooler to be attached to and cool NVIDIA GeForce GPUs

Corsair is announcing the newest members of the Carbide Series family of enclosures, with the 100R and Carbide Series 100R Silent mid-tower cases.

The Carbide 100R standard edition with side window

The Carbide Series 100R and Carbide Series 100R Silent will be among Corsair's lowest-cost enclosures at $49.99 and $59.99 each, but they are attempting to avoid "the look of many low-cost PC cases, instead offering an elegant aesthetic that will appeal to gamers, hobbyist PC builders, and system integrators". Along with expected features such as SSD mounts and front-panel USB 3.0, the enclosures also feature tool-free drive mounts (four 3.5" drives and four 2.5" drives), up to five fan mounts (and two included fans), and support for long graphics cards.

Inside the Carbide 100R

While the standard version of the Carbide Series 100R features a side panel window and upper fan vents, the 100R Silent version features sound dampening with no opening on the top, and no window on the side panel to further reduce noise.

Specifications:

Tool-free mounting of hard drives and optical drives

Dual USB 3.0 front panel ports

Direct airflow path to top GPU

Plenty of room for large graphics cards and power supplies

Cable routing channel behind motherboard tray

Up to five fan mounts

Front: 2 x 140/120mm

Top: 2 x 120mm

Rear: 120mm (included)

Two 5.25” drive bays

Four 3.5”/2.5” drive bays with trays that support hard drives and SSDs

Today Corsair is announcing a new member of HX series of power supplies, the HX1200i.

Providing 1200W of 80 PLUS Platinum certified power, Corsair says the HX1200i will be able to drive up to quad-GPU setups with 92% or better efficiency. The fully modular design uses flat ribbon cables for clean cable routing, and Corsair has made use of "specially selected low-noise components" which include 100% Japanese capacitors rated to 105° C. For low noise the Zero-RPM fan mode only spins the PSU fan when needed, and the PSU is rated for continuous power at a full 50° C.

The HX1200i will carry a 7-year warranty, and also includes Corsair Link integration which allows users to customize the fan speed and offers "real-time monitoring of the PSU’s voltages, efficiency and temperatures".